ISPOR Analysis of Submissions to Value in Health
Challenges Common Assumptions

Lawrenceville, NJ, USA—May 12, 2025—Value in Health, the official journal of ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research, announced today the publication of new research analyzing women's representation in authorship of papers submitted to and published in Value in Health. The report, “How Well Are Women Represented in Authorship in HEOR? An Analysis of Value in Health: An ISPOR Report,” was published in the May 2025 issue of Value in Health.

“While women continue to be underrepresented in authorship of scientific research generally, there has been no evidence to date on how well women are represented in authorship of papers in the field of health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) and whether that representation was affected by the COVID pandemic,” said first author Sumie Kakehi, PharmD, School of Public Health, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA. “This study aimed to assess women’s authorship in Value in Health—ISPOR's preeminent HEOR journal—in terms of papers submitted to and accepted for publication before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to evaluate its potential impact on women’s research productivity.”

The research was conducted as part of the ISPOR Women in HEOR Initiative. The authors analyzed and compared the proportion of women serving as corresponding and first authors among submitted and accepted papers during 2 periods: before (2018-2019) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). Additionally, they compared the proportion of women authors from low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries to the proportion from the rest of world (ROW) countries.

Primary findings:

1. The pandemic did not negatively affect women's authorship in Value in Health (contrary to the initial hypothesis). In fact, there was a slight, though not statistically significant, increase in women's representation as both corresponding and first authors during the pandemic compared to before.
2. Women account for approximately 45% of submissions to Value in Health and more than 45% of accepted papers as first or corresponding authors.
3. There is a significant disparity between countries: women from LMICs are underrepresented in authorship compared to women from ROW countries. The logistic regression showed submissions from ROW countries have significantly higher odds of having women as corresponding authors compared to LMIC countries.
4. Women are less likely to submit opinion/commentary-type papers than men. Short research papers (including editorials, commentaries, policy perspectives, etc) had decreased odds of having women as corresponding authors compared to original research.

Overall, this study indicates that while gender balance in submissions and acceptances was not adversely affected by the pandemic, there are still areas where diversity requires ongoing attention, particularly regarding women from LMICs and women's participation in opinion-based publications. Ultimately, additional analyses are needed to continue monitoring gender distribution, to explore whether the proportions are representative of the wider HEOR workforce, and to investigate whether these distributions change in the future.

Further Reading

• Primer on Health Equity Research in Health Economics and Outcomes Research: An ISPOR Special Interest Group Report
• “What’s Sex and Gender Got to Do With It?” A Scoping Review of Sex- and Gender-Based Analysis in Pharmacoepidemiologic Studies of Medication Adherence
• Evaluation of Diversity of Clinical Trials Informing Health Technology Assessments in the United States: A 5-Year Analysis of Institute for Clinical and Economic Review Assessments
• Patient-Centered Care for Women: Delphi Consensus on Evidence-Derived Recommendations

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ABOUT ISPOR
ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR), is an international, multistakeholder, nonprofit dedicated to advancing HEOR excellence to improve decision making for health globally. The Society is the leading source for scientific conferences, peer-reviewed and MEDLINE^®-indexed publications, good practices guidance, education, collaboration, and tools/resources in the field.
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ABOUT VALUE IN HEALTH
Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) is an international, indexed journal that publishes original research and health policy articles that advance the field of health economics and outcomes research to help healthcare leaders make evidence-based decisions. The journal’s current impact factor score is 4.9 and its 5-year impact factor score is 5.6. Value in Health is ranked 5th of 118 journals in Health Policy and Services, 15th of 174 journals in Health Care Sciences and Services, and 56th of 597 journals in Economics. Value in Health is a monthly publication that circulates to more than 55,000 readers around the world.
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